Five Easy Tips for Putting Your Etsy Shop on Vacation Mode

Sometimes you might need to take a break and put your Etsy shop on vacation. This can be for a variety of reasons- a planned holiday, an unexpected emergency or sickness, or just because you need some time to finish a project. There are a lot of misconceptions about vacation mode (it will bring your ranking down on the search engines, shoppers can still make purchases, etc.), none of which I’ve found to be true from my experience. Let’s look at a few ways to make the process as simple and easy as possible!

1. Get all of your open orders shipped out first.

Unless you have a sudden emergency it’s best to get all of your open orders mailed out before going into vacation mode. This will reduce any stress for both you and your current customers. If they go to your shop and see it’s on vacation but their item hasn’t shipped yet it might cause confusion. Communicate with your buyers if you have to suddenly pause your shop. You’ll need to discuss the processing time frame and if they want to continue with their order despite the delay or cancel.

2. Decide when you’ll return.

If you know how long you’ll be away it’s okay to give a general time frame to your shop’s customers and visitors. For privacy and security reasons don’t be super specific about your vacation, but you can include a date when your shop will reopen in the announcement and/or auto-reply (more on that below). Your Etsy shop’s main page visitors can also opt-in to get an email when you turn your store off vacation mode.

3. Set a shop announcement and auto-reply message.

The most important thing to do when you’re going on vacation mode is to set a temporary auto-response for conversations as well as a shop announcement. Your announcement will be publicly displayed at the top of your store, while the auto-reply will be sent to those to write to you through Etsy’s messaging system. They are both excellent ways to convey information to your shop’s visitors and customers. Once you return from vacation mode both of these temporary features will not be visible to others.

4. Answer convos as quickly as possible.

If it’s possible to do so you should still reply to your Etsy conversations messages. I like to mention that I’ll still be answering messages in my temporary shop announcement and auto-reply. Your customers will appreciate a quick response and it may earn you more sales when you reopen. But if you have a serious emergency and can’t reply immediately you can also include that in your auto-response messages.

5. Work on your listings.

While on vacation mode your current active listings will not be publicly visible or available for purchase. But you can still edit and create new draft listings! If you have some free time it’s a good way to work on listings at a leisurely pace. You won’t be charged for the new listings until you leave vacation mode and publish them, but listings set to auto-renew will still do so when they eventually expire and renew themselves.

To put your shop on vacation mode from the desktop version: go to your “Shop Settings” and then “Options” where you can toggle it on and off. On the Sell on Etsy app: click on “Shop Settings” from the drop-down menu and scroll to the bottom.

What are your vacation tips?

A Cincinnati native, Rebecca studied Art History & Geology at the University of Michigan. From there, she earned a degree in Fashion Design and Marketing from the American Intercontinental University in London, England. Highlights of her career include having several pieces from her graduation collection featured in the international fashion magazine i-D (UK, Feb. 2007) and working on menâs leather pouches for the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age (which won an Oscar for Best Costume). Her brand "Purple and Lime" is a line of super-fun womenswear, jewelry, and accessories based in Chicago. She has been successfully selling her line on Etsy and in shops for four years, and enjoys teaching others about online handmade selling!